Episode 8 - Gettysberg
18 November 2011
Synopsis: Andy tries to inspire the office into seeing their work like a war by taking them to Gettysburg. About half go with him and find the visit uninspiring and tiring. Gabe is confused for an Abraham Lincoln impersonator. The other half of the office are given a surprise visit by Robert California who is impressed by some of Kevin's ideas.
The Good: Ryan's idea to use origami as the paper industry's sushi was pretty clever. It fit his character really well because it is a big picture idea that in theory sounds great but how exactly was he going to turn that into a practical strategy?
The attempt to humanise Gabe by showing him entertaining children was ok, it made nice use of the Gettysburg setting.
The Bad: The field trip was the most Michael-lite story we have seen so far this season. You can just imagine Michael going far further than Andy in acting out the analogy of war to his employees. As Andy isn't Michael the plot felt pointless and lacklustre. The group were unenthusiastic and tired and Andy got tired fairly quickly. That was about it. The conflict and humour were minimal.
I don't think the writers really thought through Andy's objectives with the trip. Jim reassures him that they all like him. Why? Was that why he put on the trip? I thought he was trying to inspire them so that they would work harder to find and keep clients.
The Dwight story was annoying from the start because you knew Dwight was either lying or missing important information. It was frustrating to see him arguing his case and not have Oscar just demand the evidence for his claims. When the evidence finally did come I thought it had a fairly patronising implication of homosexuality. The men who escaped the war to go to Schrute Farms were portrayed as cowards and the joke seemed to be that Dwight's ancestors were gay. Ha ha. Maybe no one watching was offended but it was a very cheap punch line nonetheless.
The Kevin story felt like it was just reduced him to Homer Simpson with Robert California playing Mr Burns. It was very close to the story of Homer asking for more tartar sauce (202) and the resulting happiness amongst workers leading to a boost in productivity. This was even dumber though as supposed people-reader and genius manipulator Robert talks to Kevin all afternoon and doesn't realise that Kevin was literally talking about cookies.
Comic Highlight: I sort of liked the tease gag where Pam faked her water breaking to get out of a boring meeting. If that was the whole joke then I would have liked it more. The idea that for weeks she had been telling people she was going into labor felt cartoony and unlike her.
That's what I said: This was bad television. The Andy plot was a watered down version of what the show used to be. The Dwight and Kevin stories were even worse. The Office is in desperate need of refreshment. New writers, new vision or new cast members. It has become stale.
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